Aging Isn’t Beautiful III

In human females, menopause occurs after a period of steadily increasing probability of defective reproduction (the chances of a woman bearing a Down’s Syndrome baby, for example, increases sharply after age thirty-five). The shutdown of reproduction in humans does not mean the end of life, however. Evolutionary factors which may have resulted in this extended […]

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Aging Isn’t Beautiful I

There are many virtues to growing old. [long pause] I am just trying to think what they are. —Somerset Maugham at the age of eighty As much as we may wish otherwise, old age is an unpleasant and unattractive affliction. Some people, it is true, have been active and productive into very old age—among them […]

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